I've had a lot of fun reading her comic for the many years I have and I truely enjoyed the ending. For me I did find the comentary interesting, but it was just like one of those extras you usually find on DVDs, not nessasary but still nice. If Aeire ends it here than thats fine with me, It had a great ride. Besides, I'm glad she ended it when she did. I hate to have seen it dragged out past its staying point. She found a great point to end it.

Low pay, long hours, disrespectful students, and no respect...Where do I sign up!

Studying to become a Special Ed teacher, watching my sanity going out the door.

Tierran wrote:The only thing that bothers me about all this is Aerie's post to the LJ Community. I thought it was an awfully rude way to address your fans.

Dunno, Tierran, the actual post seemed a little overpolite and understated if you ask me. How would you feel if you had just finished moving, were going through the process of getting your real (by which i mean paying) life in order, and were just starting to be able to indulge in hobbies, starting with the ones that take the least time and energy (reading others' blogs and forums). Then suddenly, someone from one of your more costly hobbies shows up and posts a (presumably off-topic) 600x800 graphic calling undue attention to you and being irritatingly needy. Sort of the Internet Equivalent of dressing as a Cylon and shouting "Adama! Adama!" at Edward James Olmos while he's in the house at the Oscars.

The savior of billions (Norman Borlaug) dying barely rated a mention in the news this year. Farrah Fawcett wore a bikini well back in the 70s and she got international coverage. Good job, society. --Lisa Skye Ioannidis

Casual Notice wrote:Dunno, Tierran, the actual post seemed a little overpolite and understated if you ask me. How would you feel if you had just finished moving, were going through the process of getting your real (by which i mean paying) life in order, and were just starting to be able to indulge in hobbies, starting with the ones that take the least time and energy (reading others' blogs and forums). Then suddenly, someone from one of your more costly hobbies shows up and posts a (presumably off-topic) 600x800 graphic calling undue attention to you and being irritatingly needy. Sort of the Internet Equivalent of dressing as a Cylon and shouting "Adama! Adama!" at Edward James Olmos while he's in the house at the Oscars.

Well, I'm operating on the assumption that she WANTS to be successful as a web comic writer/artist. She's a wonderful story teller and artist. I will state taht I won't let her attitude, whatever I perceive it to be, change that. I'm not going to be overly dramatic and say I'm never going to read her next project because in the end, I read comics to be entertained and if her next one entertains me as much as QoW did then I have every intention of reading it. Not everyone feels taht way judging by some of the posts I've seen.

And I'm very happy to see she's alright. However, what was done was in NO WAY like standing out side EJO's house in a cylon suit. To begin with, Aerie was active on LJ plenty over the past month on her own journal. If she doesn't care about her fanbase, that's fine, but someone posted what was a very funny wanted ad in an LJ they saw her post to. There was nothing at all creepy about it. So the first time she decides to address her fans after over a month is to tell them they're creepy and to leave her alone? Sorry, that spells ***** in my book. Fill in the five letter word that rhymes with itch.

And give me a break...costly hobby? This might be costly for her, but this is hardly a hobby. Hobbies don't get you published and pull you an income. My hobbies don't involve selling merchandise to people. Playing board games? That's a hobby. However I don't think I'll be selling anyone a t-shirt saying "I lost to Tierran and all I got was this t-shirt" (though the image amuses me ) Aerie is trying to do something and be successful at it. That's why she's here.

Finally, the reason why her statement struck me the way it did, is because it wasn't characteristic of her. If she never talked to her fans and did her webcomic and sold tshirts and books and just didn't really interact, that'd be one thing. But that wasn't the case. She had a FORUM so people could interact with her. She RAN the LJ community so people could interact with her and talk about her comic. She ENCOURAGED all of this contact with her. Then she vanished. Just outright vanished with no word. People worried because they cared. Someone saw her and posted a picture. What did that get everyone? A message telling them to go away and stop bothering her.

The only reason I've been sticking around is to see if she gets the message and responds in a more polite maner. If she doesn't, well, oh well. I'm not her friend anyway. I find some of of the back and forth amusing. I didn't post here much before and was mainly comign to the forum lately to try and see if anyone knew where she went. I still don't know where she went, but I know now that she's not dead or hurt. That's good. I'll just go back to lurking. I read plenty of comics without caring about the author, though the ones I do care about them tend to get my money.

So she can say what she wants. You can defend her if you like...but as a fan I found it rude...and I'll spend my money elsewhere. But thanks for the free comics! When's the next one? Peace out...wipe that brown ring from your face.

badkittyface wrote:i just think it's hilarious that the person who started this thread with "oooh, i'm SO worried about Aerie" (which is the kiss-ass way of saying "OMG AERIE AERIE POST HERE") found out that she was just fine and proceeded directly on to "fuck this place... g'bye".

I'm with this. That was pretty damn funny.

tierran wrote:the reason why her statement struck me the way it did, is because it wasn't characteristic of her. If she never talked to her fans and did her webcomic and sold tshirts and books and just didn't really interact, that'd be one thing. But that wasn't the case. She had a FORUM so people could interact with her. She RAN the LJ community so people could interact with her and talk about her comic. She ENCOURAGED all of this contact with her. Then she vanished. Just outright vanished with no word. People worried because they cared. Someone saw her and posted a picture. What did that get everyone? A message telling them to go away and stop bothering her.

I'm also with this, though. To start and maintain a community in multiple places (a forum, an LJ community, etc) and then up and disappear with no word for over a month is a little unexpected, and obviously troubled some of her fans. To expect that they would just sit there and *not* speculate on what was going on, or try to establish some contact with her to see what was up, just doesn't make any sense. I mean, of course they're going to. That's what fans do.

so i just went to the top of the basement steps and went: "hey... there's a couple of people who won't be visiting your site anymore." and she's all: "hunh... ok." and i go: "do you need a tissue or something?" and she goes: "nah, i'm good... could you loosen my shackles a little, though?" and i'm like: "tee hee... Aerie, you so crazy."

badkittyface wrote:i just think it's hilarious that the person who started this thread with "oooh, i'm SO worried about Aerie" (which is the kiss-ass way of saying "OMG AERIE AERIE POST HERE") found out that she was just fine and proceeded directly on to "fuck this place... g'bye".

badkittyface wrote:i just think it's hilarious that the person who started this thread with "oooh, i'm SO worried about Aerie" (which is the kiss-ass way of saying "OMG AERIE AERIE POST HERE") found out that she was just fine and proceeded directly on to "fuck this place... g'bye".

It was worth coming back and reading the thread just for that.

Someone PMed me about this response, so I came back to reply.

You think its hilarious that I pulled a 180 on Aerie? First off, all I said was I was worried about her. She dissapeared for weeks then months with no word (That I knew of) whatsoever. I made this topic not to "kiss up" to her (Because I dont fucking kiss up to anyone, I could care less about Aerie now) but I made it because no one else had, and it seemed like a good way to kill some time.

I turned on her because of the unprofessional and calous way she treated her fans. It was obvious that at the time we were a burden to her, so I left never to give her site any traffic again (I got here through direct link).

Its posts like these that make people not want to post on Keenspot. Someone comes in and says word one against the comic or its creator and immediately the entire board throws a hissy fit because someone had a dissenting opinion.

Now, if you wish to further this argument you can PM me, until then I am leaving.

PS- I realize some people will go "LMAO He came back lolz!" and miss the entire point of this post, but you are idiots and I could care less about you anyway.

I'm pretty sure it's physically impossible to write some emotionally charged post then not come back to check for replies. It really would be better if people stopped writing that they're leaving forever. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have posted in the first place.

On the original topic, though, I'm glad Aerie is ok. It does kinda suck how she seems to have abandoned QoW without a note, but if she starts making good comics again someday, I'll probably forgive her.

... or maybe not... in fact, I'm leaving, and never coming back! WAAAIIII!!!!!! (runs out of room and slams door, then peeks in the window to see if anybody noticed)

I have no clue what happened to Aeire, but I imagine it's the same thing that happens to us all. It's called life. You know, that thing that happens to you while you're making plans. I'll be happy if she returns, a little sad if she doesn't, but it really won't affect my life one way or the other. For now I'll thank her for the work she's done and wish her well in the future.

I'd be infinitely sympathetic with Aerie had she posted anything on the QoW site about this. Even "This is boring me; I quit." She hasn't; I'm not.

It's taken me several months to even begin to be bothered by the delays in the DVD commentary. (I still follow Josh Phillips' other comic, 280, which on average updates about annually... and still more often than I post in Keenspace Fora.) But since December, the message about the hiatus has given a reason with a "weekend" timescale. Since early March, nothing new. Since indefinitely, the "Blog" link has lead to what looks like a parked domain. Not good signs.

Circumstances as they are, it's pretty natural for QoW fans to wonder what (if anything) has happened... the final SP crossover didn't help much for the dramatically inclined. Wondering naturally leads people start looking. And those who find something, tend to tell others who might be interested. Furthermore... the people who start looking can't post any explanation they might find on the QoW site proper; the closest they can come is to the Keenspot forum here. Where, again, there is no explanation from the author, that might be prominently placed in a sticky topic. Since not everyone starts looking from the same place, more than one "Doctor Livingstone, I presume" incident results.

My sympathy for the drama llamas storming off about the lack of updates or Aerie's underenthusiasm for being discovered alive is nonexistant. It's a webcomic. Webcomic artists are mostly amateurs, not professionals (Holbrook and the Foglios aside); irregularities in publishing are the norm. (Not that "professional" comic publishers don't have involuntary irregularities, as the Foglios will tell you.) Let me recommend the Firefox web browser to them; you can sort webcomic bookmarks into folders by update frequency, and use the "open in tabs" feature to check them in groups. It makes checking multiple comics easy, and a lack of update on one that much easier to get past to the next comic; and if you think QoW is the only webcomic worth checking, G.A.L.

I am happy to hear that Aerie's not dead, even if the proof of that is that she's becoming unnerved. However, I think her getting suprised or upset by what should have been a perfectly predictable (and avertable) human reaction by the fans, highlights how much Aerie based Kestrel on herself.

Guairdean wrote:I have no clue what happened to Aeire, but I imagine it's the same thing that happens to us all. It's called life. You know, that thing that happens to you while you're making plans. I'll be happy if she returns, a little sad if she doesn't, but it really won't affect my life one way or the other. For now I'll thank her for the work she's done and wish her well in the future.

I check QOW regularly (the drop-down menu, combined with my interest in many, many 'Spot strips works to the advantage, there). Since the commentary began to slow down, I would peek in here every so often to see if there was some sort of generic explanation/comment to give us a heads-up. No pressure; since I didn't see one, I'd just move on.

But this time, I ran across this thread, and... Ugh.

No, Aerie owes me nothing. I never paid for a single QoW strip, so I have nothing but good memories from that time.

But by the same token, I have little patience with people who complain about the downside of success. I tend to change the radio whenever one of those whiny, angst-filled songs about how tough it is to be a rock singer comes on--if I can hear you on the radio, you've already lost your bitching rights about lonely nights on the road.

Aerie's a smart lady. She certainly was aware that 'fan' is the truncated form of 'fanatic'--and is aware enough of the English language to understand the implication. Don't want to deal with fans? Stay out of popular media. If the fans are too much for her, she can pull the plug, bring down the site, dump her LJ and start over with a new online nick for more private consideration. Every job, hobby and aspect of life has downsides. Being an adult means that you get the privilege of deciding which ones have downsides that aren't worth it. Once you decide that you're going to accept the whole package, stop whining about it, and take the bad and the good together. And frankly, as has been noted above, the more extreme negative behavior of her fanbase is largely a result of her own actions (and inaction, really).

Furthermore, Keenspot has a 'place' for sites that don't update anymore. If she's at a place in her life where regular updates Just Aren't Happening, she should be upfront about it and notify the folks that run the 'Spot that it's time to move QoW to Keenspot Classic.

I think Aeire's tone was warranted. I wouldn't apprecaite someone interrupting another forum I visited with a drawing of me displaying a "Have You Seen Me" caption. Most likely, all that did was cause Aeire to get (unfairly) struck with that moderator's whip. Probably why she told everyone to leave her the french alone.

If QOW was subscription based, all these complaints would be valid. Some people have yet to learn you can't complain about something you get for free. And even if she did give a heads up or provide some explanation, this thread would still exist. It's the nature of a shit starter.

SamTheUnPokeable wrote:Sorry, thats just bullcrap. Aerie is seriouslly acting stuck up here, and I for one am done with this P.O.S. comic. looking back it had a weak storyline that was ALL over the place, and the ending sucked. There are FAR FAR better comics out there than QOW and those manage to act like they give a damn about their readers.

Oh. Whats that? I can hear all the avid fans coming to rush to Aeries side and kiss her ass. Tell her its all ok and everything will be great. You wonder why she acts stuck up....

Ambystoma4 wrote:There were complaints about the movie "A history of violence" and it's ending. The truth is that it's the perfect ending for the movie, and QoW has the ending that it needed. Life is a journey, and in the end you leave for something else. Get the metaphor?

As far as the complaints about the storyline... It's one of the loveable idiosyncracisys (sp?) of webcomics. If you think QoW is bad look at Achewood, he drops storylines in the middle of them when ever a whim hits him.

I'm not defending her, I'm just saying deal with it. She wanted to stop so she did. I enjoy the comic, but I'm not spazing out that she stopped the updates. There are more comics out there, and I'm sure you can find something else to take your affections.

I am going to answer these one ata time:
First Sam: If the comic was such POS, why did you read it in the first place? Sounds more like a case of "sour grapes" to me... On the other hand,, yes, there are other/better web comics out there... this happens to be one of the better ones, but it is NOT the best... And as far as accusing me of kissing Aeries ass and defending her (which YOU stated in your post) go back and reread what Angela had to say in the most recent updates... because Angela can't say it if Aerie doesn't think of it first... It's human nature, because it makes us feel good about ourselves... I don't know Aerie from Adam... never met her (although I would LOVE to sit down and prosetylize with her over a cup of coffee sometime) but I DO like Aeries work, not because of the artwork, but because she takes a normal, everyday problem, turns it on its head, and makes me take a step back and look at it from another viewpoint... sometimes the problems are similar to my own and sometimes they arent, but they always make me think and challenge my world viewpoint on various issues... and that I would have gladly paid for if she had chosen to continue her work... I await her "new project" with some degree of interest and can't wait to see what it is IF it ever develops...

Next Ambystoma4: Thank you. In this "lets attack everyone and everything mentality" you kept a clear head and posted a non-flaming, clear, and insightful response. I appreciate that in ANY forum.

Just to clear the air for everyone in general, here is a list of webcomics I read on a regular basis... maybe there is something here you will find to your taste to replace what you feel you have lost:

Tierran wrote:Finally, the reason why her statement struck me the way it did, is because it wasn't characteristic of her. If she never talked to her fans and did her webcomic and sold tshirts and books and just didn't really interact, that'd be one thing. But that wasn't the case. She had a FORUM so people could interact with her. She RAN the LJ community so people could interact with her and talk about her comic. She ENCOURAGED all of this contact with her. Then she vanished. Just outright vanished with no word. People worried because they cared. Someone saw her and posted a picture. What did that get everyone? A message telling them to go away and stop bothering her.

The only reason I've been sticking around is to see if she gets the message and responds in a more polite maner. If she doesn't, well, oh well. I'm not her friend anyway. I find some of of the back and forth amusing. I didn't post here much before and was mainly comign to the forum lately to try and see if anyone knew where she went. I still don't know where she went, but I know now that she's not dead or hurt. That's good. I'll just go back to lurking.

I can sign on that.
The only reason I checked the forum was to see if something maybe happend.
Actually I just found that comic 3 days ago, read true it in 1 day, read the rerun the next day, and wonderer today why no updates ... checkt the dates of the last update, wondered even more.
Leaving a message in the first place would have been really a good idea ... and yes it was rude, what we the "fans" got finaly as answer to our question if she is alright ... but well, atleast it was an answer.

Everything is alright, we should stop getting that creepy, and get back to normal.

Oh, and as a sidenote, how often you have left communities without leaving a message?
I did it once, looking back, I think it was not my brightest day ever, leaving the communtiy with a note "testing wow, back in 30 days" and never return or leave a message that explains that I am not returning anytime soon ...
good thing about this "mess" is, I guess, I will now check back there, after 2 years and leave a message that everything is alright aswell.

So, maybe some of you should stop beeing angry that you cared for nothing, shit happens, no one is hurt badly, the comic make this point I think very, very clear